Re: CHAT: The Conlang Instinct

John Cowan <jcowan@...> wrote:
> FFlores wrote:
>=20
> > I insert English
> > words and phrases into my Spanish when I speak to my brother.
>=20
> This code-switching is very interesting to me: it is common the world o=
ver

Are you in postpositional transition? ;)
I'm very interested too (see below).

> An example of the equivalence rule is switching between adjective and
> noun.  If both languages are AN or NA, then it is possible; but if one =
is AN
> and the other is NA, then it is not possible.
>=20
> Switches that violate these rules constitute less than 1% of the data. =
 Note that
> apparent violations can be induced by simple word borrowings (and bilin=
guals, unless
> they are trying to avoid them, make more borrowings than others).
I was just going to point out that I do make these violations, but it
must be because I'm actually borrowing. English adjectives I use them
all the time, in NA phrases (my lexicon includes 'cool', 'freaky',
'dark', etc.) Also in adverb-adjective phrases ('muy cool').

I think I do true code-switching mostly when I'm trying to report
something I read or heard originally in English. It may come out
more or less right... When I translate written English to spoken
Spanish on the fly, I sound like I'm drunk and upside down.

> ObConlang:  Have any artlangers thought about language-mixing strategie=
s involving
> multiple conlangs, or conlangs and natlangs?  And has talked occasional=
ly about
> Livagian-influenced English, I know.
I've been always fascinated by encounters of different cultures and
languages. My main concultural setting is based on this, especially
on the linguistic level. I have the Dr=E1selhadh, speaking Drasel=E9q,
which slowly becomes Curco in the north, being heavily influenced
(and forced to pidginize somehow) by Ciravesu. OTOH the Ciravesu
people is expanding south into the Dr=E1selhadh's territory, and
the Shej-freshta' are coming north, so the Dr=E1selhadh are allying
with the Biy=FAza. Each of these peoples have different languages.
Drasel=E9q is by far the most developed one, but I'm working on
the others; by the time these empires collide, I hope I'll know
enough of the langs to mix them appropriately. Curco is the first
part of this experiment; it's Drasel=E9q (VSO, prepositional, allowing
(fric)(stop)(liquid)(glide)(vowel)(vowel)(C)(C)(C) syllables) being
influenced by Ciravesu (SOV, postpositional, (C)V(liquid or /s/)
syllables) and acquiring a massive amount of Ciravesu words, plus
many, many semantic shifts. If I had some more time...


--Pablo Flores
  http://pablodavid.conlang.org/
  (do any of you have a problem with that address?)